Today's Quilter - UK (2020-03)

ESSENTIAL GUIDE l sewing bargello patchwork

Help! When I’ve tried Bargello
in the past, I often end up with
the strips curving. What can I
do about this?

Tr y this... This effect is called
‘bowing’ and can happen with
any multiple strip piecing. Sewing
the strips together from the same
direction each time can create
a tightness in the stitches and
encourage the fabric to stretch
and bow (see Fig 17). Pressing
can accentuate this. To prevent it
happening, every time you sew a
strip to the unit, sew it from the
opposite direction to the previous
strip. Careful pressing will also
help to correct this. Place the unit
on a cutting mat to check if it’s
bowed and if so, ease the seams
into place with the iron.

SEWING BARGELLO PATCHWORK

Bargello is an exciting and striking technique. Here are answers

to some questions about sewing this type of patchwork.

About the designer

Linda Clements is a leading technical quilting expert,

editor and writer who, for 25 years, has worked on

many fabric and craft titles for F&W Media and other

leading craft publishers.

Among the many quilters who have trusted Linda to

ensure their books are both accurate and reader friendly,

are Lynne Edwards MBE, Susan Briscoe, Pam & Nicky

Lintott, Pauline Ineson, Mandy Shaw and Lynette

Anderson. Linda’s own book, The Quilter’s Bible, is the

must-have guide to patchwork, quilting and appliqué,

and includes everything she has learnt working with the

industry’s best designers. For Today’s Quilter, Linda is

working with the team to select practical and creative

techniques. She will then go in-depth, exploring the

methods, taking them from the basic premise to their full

technical and creative potential. You can cut out and keep

this section to build your own bespoke technical handbook.

ESSENTIAL GUIDENEXTISSUE:

KANTHAQUILTS

InthenextissuewelearnhowtohandquiltKantha

designs

Help! I’d like to make up my own Bargello patterns, but I’m not good

at design. What’s the best way of going about this?

Try this... It can be difficult to visualise a design. You could use graph paper

and colour in a design (in a similar way to creating a design chart). I hate

wasting time and fabric, so I tend to spend useful time on the design process

and create a rough design on paper first. Here are the basic steps I use.

1

Photocopy each of the fabrics and print an A4 size sheet of each (Fig 18A).

Cut the paper fabrics into strips (I usually reduce the size so I end up with

a scaled-down version of the design). Tape the strips together, to mimic the

strip-pieced unit (Fig 18B).

2

Cut the paper unit into segments of various widths (again, scaling the size

down). Arrange the segments side by side, stepping them up or down in

a way that pleases you (Fig 18C) (I don’t worry about forming the complete

design, just the individual strip sets). Use tape to stick the segments together.

Use this rough layout to create the design in fabric.

Fig 17 Bowing occurring in a

strip-pieced unit

Fig (^18) Planning a design with paper strips
ABC
Scan the fabric and
print on paper
ƵƚĂŶĚƐƟĐŬƐƚƌŝƉƐ
together intoa
paper unit
ƵƚĚŝīĞƌĞŶƚƐĞŐŵĞŶƚƐĂŶĚ
arrange into a layout